An x-ray of immigration in the country

The United States has welcomed at least one-fifth of the world's immigrants. These immigrants come from almost every country. However, over the years, the immigrant groups have changed.

A study by Pew Research detailed that the U.S. foreign-born population reached a record 46.1 million in 2022. Currently, immigrants account for 13.8% of the country's population. Despite the majority being born in Mexico, India and China, more and more people are coming from countries such as Venezuela, Cuba and Brazil:

"In 2022, Mexico was the top country of birth for immigrants who arrived in the last year, with about 150,000 people. India (about 145,000) and China (about 90,000) were the next largest sources of immigrants. Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil and Canada each had about 50,000 to 60,000 new immigrant arrivals," explained the Pew Research study.

Pew Research detailed that since 2019, immigration from Latin America (much of it unauthorized) has reversed the pattern and more Hispanics than Asians have arrived each year.

Most are in the country legally 

While that shift has come about because of the massive influx of undocumented immigrants into the country, the Pew Research report revealed that more than 76% of immigrants live in the country legally. Forty-nine percent were naturalized U.S. citizens, 24% were legal permanent residents and 4% legal temporary residents. Unauthorized immigrants accounted for 23% in 2022.

However, the study clarified that in that year the number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. showed steady growth for the first time since 2007, reaching 11 million.

In addition, Pew Research indicated that "virtually all unauthorized immigrants living in the United States entered the country without legal permission or arrived on a non-permanent visa and stayed after it expired."

"A growing number of unauthorized immigrants have permission to live and work in the U.S. and are temporarily protected from deportation. In 2022, about 3 million unauthorized immigrants had these temporary legal protections," the study added. 

In addition, the analysis noted that about 500,000 immigrants arrived in the United States by the end of 2023 on the grounds of programs created for Ukrainians (U4U or Uniting for Ukraine) and people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV parole). "These immigrants mainly arrived too late to be counted in the 2022 estimates, but they could be included in future estimates."

Immigrants, a sizable labor force 

More than 30 million immigrants were part of the U.S. labor force in 2022. Legal immigrants made up the majority of the immigrant labor force, with 22.2 million. 

"An additional 8.3 million immigrant workers are unauthorized. This is a notable increase over 2019 but about the same as in 2007", Pew Research highlighted. 

Which states are immigrants living in? 

Finally, the study also noted that the preferred state for immigrants is California. In 2022, the majority of the nation's 46.1 million immigrants lived in four states: California (10.4 million or 23% of the national total), Texas (5.2 million or 11%), Florida (4.8 million or 10%) and New York (4.5 million or 10%).